Emanuel l



(No Model.)

r E. L. RICHARDS.

PROCESS OF AND-APPARATUS FOR DIPPING PILLS. No. 599,865. Patented Mar. 1; 1898.

WITNESSES: INVENTOR:

UNITED "STATES ATENT FFICE.

EMANUEL L. RICHARDS, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO HANCE BROS. & WHITE, OF SAME PLACE.

PROCESS OF AND APPARATUS FOR DIPPING PILLS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 599,865, dated March 1, 1898. 7 Application filed November 27; 1896. 7 Serial No. 613,487. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EMANUEL L. RICHARDS, of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvement-s in Processes of and Apparatus for Dipping Pills, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

My invention relates toa new and useful process and apparatus used in the dipping of pills in quantity in gelatin or any similar substance in order to manufacture What are termed gelatin-coated pills,.&c. For this purpose hitherto it has been customary to employ what are termed needle-bars, which consist in a series of fine needles so mounted and manipulated that they are caused to impale a series of the pills and hold them upon their points during the process of dipping. Certain devices have also been employed in which pneumatic suction is utilized for the same purpose. Both these apparatus are, however, objectionable, the former in that the needles necessarily leave a hole in one end of the pill, and the latter, although avoiding this difficulty, by reason of the uncertainty of its action and the complicated character of the necessary apparatus. r

In my invention I employ a bar or plate a surface of which is coatedwith an adhesive preparation, such as Wax, having certain physical properties, as will be hereinafter explained, and I find that by the proper arrangements of its parts, as indicated in the following specification and drawings, it is possible ,to accurately lift and dip simultaneously a number of pills with a very small expenditure of manual labor, the apparatus being very simple and inexpensive.

The apparatus by which I carry out my processis illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which-.-

Figure 1 represents a portion of a dippingbar coated on its lower side with an adhesive mixture and with a number of pills adhering thereto, the oval shape being shown, which is their preferred form. Fig. 2 represents a spacing-plate and a base-plate to be used in connection with the dipping-bar. Fig. 3 represents a base-plate by itself; and Fig. 4 repconvenient length.

resents in vertical cross-section the dippingbar, spacing-plate, and base-plate, all in situ. The dipping-bar A, Fig.1, may be of any I find that eighteen or twenty inches makes a convenient size. If it be desired to manipulate a larger number of pills simultaneously, a rectangular plate may be employed capable of holding amumber of rows at a time; but I have illustrated my invention only with reference to the handling of a single row of pills. The lower side of the dipping-barAis coated to some depth with 7 a cleanly separable adhesive substance, as indicated at a. By adhesive substance in this connection I mean a substance having"6 5 such physicalproperties that when a light object, such as a pill, is pressed against it it will hold to its surface against the action of gravity with considerable firmness, and this even though the surface of thepill be oov- 7o ered with a coating of as smooth a substance as hard gelatin. Adhesiveness alone is, however, insufficient for my purpose, as there is a very large class of adhesive substances which would satisfy the foregoing requirements, and yet which would be wholly inapplicable to my purpose. The additional requirement I have expressed by the words cleanly separable, meaning thereby, on the one hand, to exclude all substances which by reason of their viscid, slimy, or ropy consistency would stick so firmly to the pill that when removed a portion of the adhesive substance would remain on the surface of the pill, and also, on the other hand, to exclude all those adhesive substances which (usually by reason of their being readily soluble in Water) would tend to dry rapidly and set firmly upon the pill, so that they would forbid the removal ofthe pill without breaking 0 such, for instance, as paste or mucilage proper. and rosin in proper proportions (depending upon the temperature at which the operation is carried on) has the desired consistency and 5 possesses all the physical properties which are required by my operation.

To hold the pills in position for being operated upon, a spacing-plate B, Fig. 2, is employed. In this plate there is a row of holes I find that amixture of beeswax v. I

b, corresponding to the positions which it is desired that the pills shall take. This plate is of such thickness that an ordinary oval pill will project at one end appreciably above the surface of the hole, while at the same time fitting with reasonable snugness within it. In order to facilitate the filling of the spacing-plate with the pills, the edges of the holes are chamfered. The holes project clean through the plate, and in order to prevent the pills from falling through a base-plate O, the surface of which may be covered with chamois-skin or felt c, is placed below the spacing-plate.

The first step in my process is to sprinkle over the spacing-plate a number of uncoated pills until one has fallen in each of the holes. The surplus pills are then removed and the dipping-bar pressed firmly down upon the projecting ends of the row which occupies the spacing-plate, as is seen in Fig. 4:. If care be taken as to the consistency of the wax, each pill will adhere to the dipping-bar, which is then raised quite vertically, carrying with it the entire line of pills D. Thus held the pills are dipped in a bath of gelatin or whatever substance the pills are to be coated with to at least half their depth, great care being taken not to dip deep enough to get any of the gelatin upon the wax. The bar, with its adhering pills, is then set aside to dry. At this point it is evident that the lower half of the pill is coated; but the upper half is uncoated.

The next step in the operation is the inversion of the half-coated pills, which is accomplished as follows: The bar carrying them is carefully replaced over the spacing-plate until one pill occupies each hole. By a slight sidewise motion the bar is removed, leaving all of the pills in their holes. A second baseplate 0 Fig. 3, is then inverted and placed on top of the spacing-plate, which, with its upper and lower base-plate, is then itself in verted. hat was previously the lower and has now become the upper base-plate is then removed, leaving the coated extremities of the pills exposed upwardly. The dippingbar (or a similar bar, for it must be understood that a number of these bars may be kept in use simultaneously) is then pressed upon the coated ends of the pills, which, as before, adhere to the bar and are raised all together and dipped within the gelatin to a sufficient depth to complete their coating. They are then set aside a second time to dry, and when dried are brushed from the bar and are ready for use.

Pills so dipped, if the manipulation is properly effected, are of a very regular elliptical form and have no objectionable holes at their ends, such as are always present in pills which have been dipped by the use of a needle-bar.

Having thus described my invention, I claim- 1. The process of coating pills which consists in the following steps: first, applying to a series of pills held in convenient proximity to each other a bar or plate the surface of which is coated with a cleanly separable adhesive substance and pressing the same down upon the pills until they adhere thereto; second, transferring this series of adhering pills to, and dipping them to a portion of their depth within, a bath of the desired coating; third, allowing the series of pills thus partially coated to dry; fourth, pressing upon the coated extremities of the series of pills a similar bar coated with adhesive substance until the entire series of pills adhere to the latter bar by their coated extremities; and, fifth, again transferring and dipping the entire series within the bath containing the desired coating to a sufficient depth to coat the uncoated surface of the pills, substantially as described.

2. An apparatus for dipping pills, which consists of the space-plate, B, the base-plate, O, and the bar or plate, A, having its lower surface coated with a cleanly separable adhesive substance, such as wax, substantially as described.

EMANUEL L. RICHARDS.

Vitnesses:

G. HERBERT JENKINS, E. Russia. 

